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Most Expensive Domains in Forex and Crypto

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People invest millions in establishing Forex brokerages, crypto exchanges, or any other similar projects in the online trading industry. Typically, these funds are spent on the trading software, liquidity, hiring, lots of flashy ads…but also many companies invest heavily in their branding by choosing a short and/or very memorable domain name. It is quite obvious that something like BTC.com is way more memorable and brandable than buybitcoinsonlinehere.com. It is quite obvious too that the first domain will cost you a fortune, while the second one is probably available for the registration at $9.95 a year. Today we are going to take a look at the most expensive Forex and crypto domain deals to see how much money financial domaining can really bring. We have prepared an infographic for those of you who don’t like reading. Should you prefer a good ol’ reading – scroll down 🙂

Are you a reader? Cool beans! Let’s start by listing the most notable crypto domain sales starting from the cheapest.

Top Crypto Domain Sales

PayEther.com, GlobalCoin.com, and CryptoTrading.com

PayEther.com and GlobalCoin.com domain names were sold for $45,000 and $35,515 respectively via Sedo, while other domain, CryptoTrading.com, was sold for $35,000 on Undeveloped. The new owners of the abovementioned domains are still not known, whilst the domains are still on the waiting list for any future use.

BitcoinCash.org

Registered in March 2017, BitcoinCash.org was sold just 4 months later for $48,888 via GoDaddy service. Currently, the website BitcoinCash.org is used as the informative portal about Bitcoin Cash cryptocurrency. The site contains tons of information about this digital currency, while also notifying the visitors about any planned updates to Bitcoin Cash network protocol.

CryptoNews.com

CryptoNews.com is a domain name currently used for the news portal related to the cryptocurrency industry. As we have found out, previously the domain CryptoNews.com was sold for $50,536 in August 2017.

The ironical fact is that the year before the CryptoNews.com found a new owner, the domain name was sold in April 2016 for merely $900. What a nice ROI, right?

BitForex.com

In 2018, Undeveloped processed another sale for the domain name – this time it was BitForex.com. The price of the deal was the $65,000. For some time the page remained empty, but recently BitForex.com launched as the cryptocurrency trading platform and exchange, based in Asia.

Coin.Org

In 2014, Domain Guardians acted as the brokers for the sale of Coin.org domain for $75,000. The buyer of the name is the company Digital CC Limited. At the moment, Coin.org is the website under construction, but as the page informs it is going to be the educational site about the crypto assets and blockchain technology.

YouCoin.com

The domain YouCoin.com was reportedly sold for €70,000 on Sedo marketplace. For the time being, YouCoin.com name is utilized for the website dedicated to YouCoin cryptocurrency. As we have discovered, the company behind YouCoin.com is Anchor Capital that is based in Switzerland.

CryptoRate.com

CryptoRate.com domain happened to be sold on December 31, 2017, for $99,888. With the help of WHOIS, we discovered that the new owner of the domain is Zayed AI Nehayan of Abu Dhabi. In other words, the domain name has become the property of one of the UAE ruling families – Al Nahyan.

The domain CryptoRate.com is still inactive and there is no publicly available information about its potential use.

CryptoBank.com

The domain marketplace Undeveloped announced in April 2017 about the acquisition deal that was sealed for the CryptoBank.com domain for $125,000. According to the domain name search service WHOIS, the current owner of the domain is Craig Ellis, who is an ex-footballer and also the co-founder of the swimwear company Triangl.

As in the case of CryptoRate.com, CryptoBank.com domain has not been put to use so far, hence the web page is still empty.

CryptoWorld.com

Cryptocurrency domains are sold as hotcakes right now, and the domain name CryptoWorld.com happened to be one of them. Mike Mann, the owner of the domain, sold it to the buyer for $194,888. Later, the seller revealed that deal was struck with Binance, the Hong Kong and China-based cryptocurrency exchange.

Quite interesting is the fact that Mike Mann first bought the domain name in 2011 for just $15. In August 2017, the put it for sale for $29,888. Yet the final price tag turned out to be much higher.

Binance has not still used the domain name, thus there is no active CryptoWorld.com website. Currently, the domain directs to a DomainMarket.com page.

BitcoinWallet.com

Back in 2014, the Texas entrepreneur Alex Charfen purchased BitcoinWallet.com domain name for $250,000. Since the domain acquisition, BitcoinWallet.com has grown into one of the popular wallet services for cryptocurrencies.

Liquid.com

In March 2018, Quoine, a fintech company, with the assistance from Starfire Holdings, conducted the acquisition deal of the Liquid.com domain for $750,000. As we found out, the domain was intended to be used for the cryptocurrency exchange platform named Liquid. This platform is aimed at the crypto investors as well as the token issuers.

In 2017, Quione held an ICO in which it raised more than $350 million. Now the company is expanding quite rapidly, with more than 100 employees based in the offices in Singapore, Japan and Vietnam.

BTC.com

In August 2014, the GAWMiners, a big Bitcoin mining equipment vendor, purchased the domain BTC.com for the $1,000,000. The company struck the deal about a month later after the domain went to the market.

Block-Chain.com

During the annual Consensus 2018 blockchain summit sponsored by CoinDesk, another huge domain acquisition was announced. It became known that the group of investors decided to purchase the Block-chain.com domain for $1 million. In fact, this was the 3rd most expensive acquisition of the domain in the crypto industry so far.

We should also mention that Block-Chain.com website is one of the most popular websites for the blockchain and crypto news.

ETH.com

A fellow crypto domain was sold in the year 2017 in the multi-million dollar deal by the domain broker Saleem Sharjil. According to the official information, the domain sale deal was closed for $2 million. Currently, ETH.com domain represents the website MyEtherWallet, which is one of the top choices of the Ethereum wallets among the users.

Top FX Domain Sales

Forexbrokers.com

In 2016, Reink Media made the officially announced the acquisition of Forexbrokers.com domain. Initially, the purchase price was not known, but then it accidentally became public – $150,000. Forexbrokers.com is currently used for the website for FX broker reviews.

StockBrokers.com

In 2015, Reink Media Group bought the domain name StockBrokers.com for $185,000. Now the domain name directs to the website dedicated to all kinds of stockbroker reviews and guides.

Finances.com

In 2013, Finances International Ltd announced the purchase deal of Finances.com domain name for the sum of $500,000. Since the deal, the domain has been used for the financial portal, mostly focused on the Forex market.

Investing.com

In 2012, Forexpros bought the Investing.com for $2.45 million which became the second largest purchase of a domain name that year. Forexpros CEO Dror Efrat commented on the acquisition by hinting that the future site would be dedicated to Forex, stocks, bonds, commodities, future. Now Investing.com had grown into one of the most successful sites related to the financial markets, with over 150 employees globally. On top of that, the website is entirely localized in 30 languages.

ICE.com

One of the recent domain sales of 2018 was the $3.5 million acquisition deal of ICE.com. As we have found out the deal was brokered by Brannan’s. Interestingly, ICE.com initially was used for the jewelry e-commerce website. However, now when the deal is sealed, ICE.com directs the user to the theice.com, which is the page of the Intercontinental Exchange. Although the deal was conducted privately, one can rightfully assume that soon the Intercontinental Exchange will change its domain name.

Just to remind, Intercontinental Exchange is operating 23 regulated exchanges and various marketplaces like the NYSE. It is certainly one of the biggest players in the financial markets.

IG.Com

In September 2013, the trading giant IG Group purchased the IG.com domain for $4.7 million from iG.com, the Brazilian media website. The deal reportedly was brokered by Igloo.com and NetNames. Now IG.com domain represents one of the oldest and premier retail brokerages for CFD trading.

Invest.com

Another domain acquisition deal in the trading industry occurred in 2014. More specifically, the domain name Invest.com was sold for over $5 million to the Israel-based VC firm Singulariteam. The domain was intended to be used for the FX trading website. Previously, the name Invest.com was sold in the market in 2008 for $1 million.

Now the domain directs to the page that indicates that Invest.com teamed up with Bittrex, the crypto exchange, to launch a state-of-the-art digital trading platform.

Z.com

In 2014, the Japanese company named the GMO Internet has purchased Z.com domain in a $6.8 million (JPY 800 mln) deal with Nissan North America. The latter has been using the domain name for its Nissan Z Car. Since that time, GMO Internet has implemented the domain name for its FX platform – Z.com. It is currently among the largest Forex platforms in the market.

Top Undisclosed Deals

XM.com

In 2013, the WSJ posted a press release about the acquisition of XM.com domain by Trading Point of Financial Instruments Ltd. The transaction supposedly occurred in April, yet there was no official announcement of how much the deal was worth. Some people familiar with the matter hinted that XM.com domain name was for sale at the starting price of $220,000.

Tokens.com

It is reported that Tokens.com domain has been sold for $500,000 this year. Ali Zandi, the founder of Starfire Holdings, brokered the sale of the domain to Polymath. However, was no official announcement of the deal, but Ali Zandi confirmed that the transfer happened. Polymath, the buyer of Tokens.com, is a decentralized protocol that facilitates the capital raising and creation of the security tokens. Additionally, the company was founded in the year 2017.

Capital.com

In 2017, Capital.com brokerage launched after securing $25 million in funding. One of the most serious expenses for the new company was the investment in Capital.com domain name. Although the exact price tag remains unrevealed, it is suggested that Capital.com was in the top 5 biggest domain acquisition deals of 2017. Previously, the Capital.com domain was purchased for $750,000 in 1999.

Markets.com

The GFC Markets broker, based in Cyprus, purchased the domain name Markets.com in the private deal in 2010. The price tag for the acquisition stays under lock and key, yet it is quite easy to presume that such a memorable name would definitely cost a lot in the industry. The similar deal happened with the domain name purchase of Forex.com by Gain Capital Ltd, where the price is also unknown but was estimated to be $1 million based on the rumors.

Markets.com domain signifies one of the top-tier CFD and FX providers in the market. The website is operated by SafeCap, which is a subsidiary of LSE-listed Playtech PLC.

Is Crypto.com the most expensive domain out there?

The Crypto.com domain did seem as the premium name and hence many in the industry were interested in getting it. Yet the owner of the website, Matt Blaze, who is the professor of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania, refused any of the business proposals to sell Crypto.com. Moreover, Professor Blaze has owned Crypto.com since 1993. However, now his opinion seems to have changed.

Crypto.com was sold to the Hong-Kong based Monaco in July 2018 for the undisclosed price. However, the experts familiar with the matter estimate the transaction cost as high as $10,000,000. Now Crypto.com domain is a home to the cryptocurrency exchange. The company also provides Visa debit card services for cryptos.

The Bottom Line

The conclusion here is pretty certain – good domains should always deliver value for both the buyer and the seller. For the buyer, this is a great opportunity to boost the brand and make it easier to be recognized. Sometimes achieving this goal takes lots of money, even an absurd sum – like paying $6.8 million for 1 letter domain in case of Z.com. Looks quite a lot for such a domain…but the size doesn’t matter. As we mentioned in the beginning, short and/or memorable domain name works quite well for the company and that’s number-one reason why FX and crypto companies do that as well. Likewise, some companies in the sector purchase the domain to put it aside for future projects.

For sellers, investing in domains may pay off in the future – as in the case of Crypto.com that was initially intended for cryptography and not the digital currencies. Who could have guessed that, right?

Reality is that besides the attractiveness of the particular domain names themselves or name matching the particular business brand, their worth is also driven by the current trends. Hence, many investors pick the potentially cool domain names and keep them until the opportunity arises on the horizon. It’s a win-win for everybody.